Word.ws English Dictionary

on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog proverb: it is easy to conceal someone's identity on the Internet.

Proverb

on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

  1. (humorous) It is easy to conceal someone's identity on the Internet.
    • It’s important to caution your readers, however, that they shouldn’t just pluck off an online message and pop it into their story. As they say, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog! A good reporter should contact the person by phone before sticking an online quote in a story—it’s harder for...1995, Bruce Garrison, quoting Rosalind Resnick, “Bulletin Board Systems as Reporting Tools”, in Computer-Assisted Reporting (LEA’s Communication Series), Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates...
    • The Internet is a wild and woolly place. As the old saw goes, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. Or a hacker. Because you don’t always (or even usually) know who the person is behind that cool Web server you’ve accessed, you need to be very careful when defining new MIME types for your...1996, Jeffry Dwight, Michael Erwin, “[Using MIME with CGI] Security Considerations with MIME”, in Using CGI (The Most Complete Reference), special edition, Indianapolis, Ind.: Que Corporation, →ISBN...

Forms of on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

alternative formon the Internet nobody knows you're a dog

Origin of on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

From the caption of a 1993 cartoon by Peter Steiner, which depicts a dog operating behind a computer.

Questions about on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog

What does on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog mean?
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog means it is easy to conceal someone's identity on the Internet.
What part of speech is on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog?
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog is a proverb.

Words near on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog in the dictionary

  1. on the improve
  2. on the inside
  3. on the instant
  4. on the internet
  5. on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog
  6. on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog
  7. on the jar
  8. on the job
  9. on the jump
  10. on the knocker
  11. on the ladder

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.wav.

Cite this entry: “on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_internet%2C_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.